True reaches terms with CAT to continue 2G services for another year

Thai newspaper The Nation reports that quad-play telecoms group True Corp and state-run CAT Telecom have reached an agreement for CAT to lease 2G cellular network infrastructure to True. Initially True will lease 5,000 base stations under an open-ended agreement, with three months notice required to cancel the arrangement. True will also lease CAT’s in-building 2G network, but terms are yet to be finalised. True Corp, via subsidiary True Move H Universal Communication (formerly Real Future), won a technology neutral 1800MHz licence in November and will initially use a 10MHz block in the band for 4G and the other 5MHz for 2G. The group aims to migrate all remaining 2G-only customers (estimated at less than 100,000) to 3G/4G services within a year. True’s original 2G subsidiary True Move officially shut down 2G services at midnight last Thursday and the regulator reclaimed 16 million mobile phone numbers for reallocation; True Move’s build-transfer-operate (BTO) concession issued by CAT expired in September 2013 but the regulator permitted the subsidiary to continue serving 2G customers until the tech-neutral 1800MHz licence auction was completed. CAT and True remain in dispute over the ownership of 8,000 telecom towers operated under the BTO concession.